1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a folding bedrail mount for a patient monitor. More specifically, the invention relates to a patient monitor bedrail mount capable of folding flat against a rear surface of a monitor when not in use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Portable monitors have been developed to move with the patient within a hospital setting. Portable monitors, such as the Passport.TM. monitor, manufactured by Datascope Corp. (Montvale, N.J.), are used in emergency departments, operating rooms and other departments of a hospital that may transport a patient from the patient's room to another area such as X-Ray or imaging. The portable monitor is needed in these transport situations whenever a patient is considered less than stable or above normal risk.
High risk or unstable patients are generally transported on a hospital bed or gurney. A typical hospital bed has a generally rectangular tubular metal frame construction with supports for a mattress and with a wheeled undercarriage. The mattress frame is typically supported on the wheeled undercarriage by an arrangement of collapsible legs so that the bed can be collapsed together for carriage in an ambulance. The bed may be supplied with various additional members, for example side rails. A typical hospital bed is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,940, issued on Feb. 29, 1972 to Bourgraf et al., herein incorporated by reference.
Transporting a patient generally requires a bed switch. Bed switching requires the transfer to the destination bed of any medical monitoring equipment connected to the first bed. During transportation, medical monitors are typically either mounted on a rolling stand or are hooked onto a side rail via a bracket projecting from a rear surface of the monitor. For those monitors with a bracket, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,170, issued to Lewis on Jan. 4, 1994, the monitor must be lifted off the existing bed and connected to the transfer bed. The monitor is also removed from a patient's bed when there is a need to use the monitor for another patient.
Most hospitals are very hectic and chaotic, especially in emergency situations. The existence of the protruding bracket from the rear surface of the portable monitor creates the danger that the bracket will become entangled with other neighboring equipment or that it may hit something or someone while the monitor is being moved.